NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

My New Year’s Resolutions:

lose 10 lbs (= pounds), work out for 60 minutes every day, spend quality time with my family every day, no iPhone before bed.

Yours?

Here are the most commonly broken resolutions according to TIME Magazine:

Lose Weight and Get Fit

Quit (= stop) Smoking

Learn Something New

Eat Healthier and Diet

Get Out of Debt (= owing money to someone else) and Save Money

Spend More Time with Family

Travel to New Places

Be Less Stressed

Volunteer (- do unpaid work to help people or projects in need)

Drink Less

How to nail your New Year’s resolutions?

New Year’s resolutions seem so exciting and full of promise on Jan. 1, but by the middle of the week, many people have already skipped gym (=not go to gym when you should), eaten the stacked burger (= a big hamburger)and been a jerk (=unkind) to their in-laws.

No one said goal-setting would be easy. Still, psychologists say there’s no time like the present to give your goals a try. And if you want to be a better version of yourself in 2015, there’s a science to conquering your resolutions.

Read on to find out how to stack the deck in your favor (= what to do to succeed) and do your New Year’s resolutions right this year.

1. Choose Your Goal Wisely

The key to accomplishing your goal is to make it concrete and easy to break down into pieces, said Jeff Janata, chief of psychology at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Weight loss is actually an example of a resolution that sets you up to fail (= a resolution that you can ONLY break and not keep).

“Weight loss really isn’t in our control,” Janata said, explaining that no matter how rigid (strict) the diet and exercise, weight loss naturally plateaus (= stops at some point). “That’s one of the reasons people fail at weight loss.” Instead, cutting out fried foods or deciding to work out a few days a week are better goals, he said.

2. Don’t Beat Yourself Up (= be very angry with yourself) If You Mess Up (= fail)

No matter how perfect the goal is, people are going to slip (= make a mistake). But that doesn’t mean they should give up completely.

“Re-adjust the goal (= set better goals) according to how difficult it is for you,” Janata said.

3. Reward Yourself

Building in days off is an important part of goal-setting, being totally rigid 24/7 (= all the time) is not sustainable (= something you can keep doing) over the long haul (= a long time),” Taravella said.

4. Go Public

Want to make sure you nail your 2015 resolutions? Make them public, psychologists advised.

“Talk to people about what you’re doing, so you can be accountable (=responsible),” Taravella said, explaining that you’ll be motivated to succeed because you won’t want to fail in front of your friends.

KEY EXPRESSIONS WITH “resolutions”

MAKE resolutions

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions?

KEEP or NAIL resolutions

It’s so hard to keep your resolutions, isn’t it?

BREAK resolutions / FAIL TO KEEP resolutions

Keeping fit is one of the most commonly broken resolutions.

DO your resolutions RIGHT

Psychologists will give you a few tips to do your resolutions right this year.

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Image: Paleospirit.com

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